Oftentimes in a healthcare environment, it is necessary to capture images of a patient. These images can include radiology images, laboratory images, pictures, cardiology images and a variety of other images. These images can be captured electronically in a variety of ways and are used for treatment of the patient. Patient information, such as reports for the images, may also be entered and recorded in a health (or clinical) information system.
While patient information is stored in a clinical information system, the captured images are stored in an archive. Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) are exemplary digital archives for storing healthcare images. The captured healthcare images may be stored in a variety of formats including DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) and non-DICOM formats.
DICOM images are archived according to specific standards for storing, transmitting and handling information in medical imaging. The standards include file format definition and network communications protocol. DICOM groups images together with information such as patient identification so each image is not mistakenly separated from the patient identification. Non-DICOM healthcare images do not adhere to the specific DICOM standards.
Currently, PACS digital archives can store both DICOM and non-DICOM images. However, the image viewers to view DICOM and non-DICOM viewers are separate. Current PACS do not have the ability to relate DICOM and non-DICOM images for a patient since the proper patient record context to support association of the images is lacking.